Never one to pussyfoot around his deep hatred for rivals and traitors, Steve Jobs chucked some choice epithets at Google boss Eric Schmidt and his products after the Apple-Google rift opened in 2007.
Android made Jobs furious, according to snippets from a new biography Steve Jobs as reported by AP. When the Google mobile OS …

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I've said it before and I'll say it again

Larry's not that bad

OK, so they did totally rip-off the iPhone with Android and are trying to do the same to Facebook with Google+. And they have a monopoly on web advertising. But that's no reason to hate on Larry Page that much.

$5 billion

In a way this shows that the advertiser giant which our media like to call "tech giant" acknowledged that android infringes on patents held by apple. That's quite revealing and interesting if google offered to settle it with $5 billion.

Say what you like about the man, he has principals and isn't shy to tell it as it is.

that maybe so...

but I think the problem is to do with Schmidt may have 'stole' the idea given the access he had in both companies.

Basically if Schmidt wasn't there. There's a chance either Android would never have come by or Google would be launch Android 2 - 3 years after the initial iPhone launch which would've given Apple complete dominance and probably saved Blackberry, Palm and Nokia from going under this quickly.

Well we'd never know, is not like we were there first hand to be able to tell. That's why it's never a good idea to tell anybody else about good ideas.

And Apple copied that of others; SE P800. Guess what NO BUTTONS!!!!! Sure you could have the keypad on the phone, you could also remove it too. That was in 2002! So did Google copy Apple or did Google copy the likes of SE or even Qualcomm with the pdQ that was released in 1998.

Your argument seems to be "Apple made a thing, then something similar came along to exploit a similar market, therefore they are ripping off apple". By that logic apple are ripping off... HTC, who released the Wallaby (aka O2 XDA, Qtec 1010 and others) a full four years before the iphone, with a full-featured touch-screen interface. Icons on a grid...

There was a trend towards touch-screens before Apple glot the iphone out. Android was following that trend. Apple was following that trend.

Sorry, you lose. Apple may have marketing success but they did not invent this interface, and they cannot claim they are being ripped off by something that is merely *similar*, yet different enough to be noticeably so, and which is simply following the prevailing paradigm.

It was around a long time before iOS and the iPhone sure, but there's a lot more besides the UI to be designed and perfected.

But I would say that Android couldn't have possibly copied the iPhone if it had been released first, but it wasn't. It was released almost a year after.

So Schmidt was obviously waiting to see the finished product and listen in to the strategy that Apple were proposing (he was sitting on the board so was privy to such information). Once the iPhone was a success they knew all to well what to do when launching the Android platform.

Anyone that thinks businesses don't operate like that is seriously deluded. There can be some rather nasty people working at companies at times. People working for one company but secretly directing customers to their own personal company. It's not legal but it happens.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

... which is why software patents should be scrapped, and why Jobs should have been happy rather than angry.

The right form of protection for software is copyright, as for books. Copying chunks of code is illegal. Creating new code that offers the end-user a similar look and feel, or which solves the same problem using the same mathematics, should be completely legal. Imitation ....

Speaking of rip-offs

Has anyone here checked out IOS5 yet? I installed it over the weekend on 2 iPhones I have at home, and found that IOS5 rips off Android's pull-down notification tab in several ways. Sure, they're cosmetically different, but the underlying structure, and purpose are nearly identical.

Now, don't get me wrong.. I'm no fan of Apple. For that matter, I absolutely hate the iPhone... it's too dumbed-down for my tastes, and I actually *could* like the platform a lot more, if it weren't for their development policy. Maybe their grandparents need technology that will *save them from themselves*, but I don't, and generally I refuse to buy any computing device unless I can hack it, mod it, or otherwise change it. This isn't always the case, but when the possibility is there, I take advantage of it.

@ Adrian W

Then using your logic, why wouldn't Mercedes-Benz sue the hell out of every auto manufacturer on the face of the earth, for hundreds, if not thousands of "rip off's"? As much as I hate to admit this, Job's didn't really own the concept of a "smart phone". I distinctly recall RIM, Palm and HP (pocket PC) having similar products pretty much come and go before the iPhone ever showed up on anybody's radar.

@Chronic The Weedhog - eh?

P800, good for its time, but...

But would you not say... prodding a resistive touch screen with a stylus and then flipping up a flap to prod some buttons is a rather different user experience to manipulating a large capacitive display with your fingers?

Destory Android? Not happening...

.. when you're selling a £500 phone, impressive though it is, and the opposition, i.e. Android, can be bought at half the price, and are available on phone contracts for next nothing.

A Mac owning friend got a Galaxy S2, because it was £50 on his contract. I got a Motorola Atrix on an 18 month £10 contract (historic), and bought my daughter a slightly used one for £200. It's dual core, has a screen as sharp as an iPhone, but the screen so is so much larger, in a similar size case to the iPhone 4. I couldn't justify waiting for a larger screen iPhone, and gave my iPhone 4 to the missus.

The transition from seamless iTunes/Outlook syncing to the mess that exists on Android was painful, but we've done it, because it was so much cheaper.

With a ~$188 tear down price on the 4S and a $649 unlocked retail price I'd say they are set to be the creator of their own problems. I don't begrudge them a margin but I won't be letting them take the piss.

Slow down there..

It's been said before and it will be said again: take a good look at Android pre- and post the iPhone introduction.

If we really think about it, this iOS vs Android 'war' is pretty pathetic: are some of projecting our inner frustrations onto software? Is this what living in an 'advanced' society does to us? Taking things a step further, why are so many people hating on and ragging on Jobs? What did he ever do to you? Negative comments about Jobs seem to automatically get a bunch of 'thumbs ups'. If you don't like him, then don't talk about him. If you don't like Apple's products don't buy them (same goes to the "Apple-is-best" crowd).

As for Anna Leach, I'll bet she cannot find proof that Jobs actually 'hated' a rival —traitors, maybe but not rivals. Do you know how much energy hate takes up? With so many rivals out there, how would he ever have found the time to manage Apple, Pixar?

Let's enjoy our Sunday and not let all the bitterness and jealousy get the best of us.

Almost every thing you just said is true

Android was in development (publicly), prior to 2007, and Google did buy the company, but prior to the iPhone launch Android was an obvious blackberry rip, top half screen, bottom half keyboard, the interface was also BB inspired, with a dock of apps along the bottom of the tiny screen and a hardware joystick for navigation.

After Apple unveiled the iPhone all that work was basically thrown in the bin and replaced with a full size screen, soft keyboard, capicitive touch screen and a grid of icons.

nonsense

going b your logic the very first android phone to be released would obviously be a carbon copy of the iphone. Just what the T-mobile G1 is with it's full slide out querty keyboard, four buttons on the front and trackball navigator. oh, wait...

Learn a bit more about mobile pc & phone development. you would find that the iphone is nothing more than an evolution of the windows pocket pc or blackberry devices {and an obvious copy of the palm os interface from 2001), dropping the need for a stylus by making making everything bigger and more finger friendly and simplifying the phone design by focusing on just a screen and ditching a separate keyboard. this proved to be a popular idea, so everyone else followed a similar evolution. Apple didn't invent the smart phone or a touch only interface.

Palm OS

seems to spring to mind unbidden

Does anyone see similarity between iOS components listed above and my ancient Tungsten T3 (grid of icons, lack of buttons, soft keyboard when needed)? Apple may have put them together in a better sleeker way, but they did not invent that stuff. This fits in with earlier Apple history (Xerox work on GUIs anyone). Again, Apple may have combine elements better than others before, and that is to be applauded, but they also often stood on the shoulders of giants.

Re: Palm OS

Whilst I totally agree with your sentiment and the first part of your statement, the second half which you use as a support for your position is erroneous. Apple didn't just copy the Xerox GUI, they bought out the rights to it and also employed the staff who had actually worked on it to develop the original MacOS. It's a not the same as simple plagiarism, and is in fact exactly what Google did with Android - bought out the early development then created something of their own with it.

However, Apple still haven't a leg to stand on by attacking Android over UI issues. Neither can anyone who says Android is a rip-off because it abandoned buttons - I seem to remember a plethora of buttonless touch interface Palm devices and the idea of having an icon-based touchscreen mobile OS UI was commonplace with Win Mobile at the launch of the first iPhone. Simply binning hardware buttons in favour of software isn't a rip-off, it's a logical technological step to improve profits for anyone faced with releasing devices with different localisations. Standardise the hardware and then customise the software - it's nothing new in the technology sector.

Usually see people about to die...

"You usually see people about to die with an altruist view of life, forgiving, forgetting, trying to make the world a little better... not this guy"

How do you know? Haven't we all said similar things at different times in our life? I hate you, I'll never forgive you, I'll kill you etc... etc... Usually uttered in anger and seldom carried through to our last week, never mind our last breath.

Unless I am mistaken, this article is reporting about something he said long before he died. I haven't seen a report to say that he was still doggedly pursuing this goal for this reason to the day he died. He might have, but I haven't see any such reports. I think it's a bit harsh to pass judgement so absolutely on a man who has, in fairness, very recently died.

Don't get me wrong, I detest Apple's business practises and I strongly believe they came from Steve so I am not a big ol fan boy jumping to the defence of my hero. I just think your post has a little too much unfounded vitriol for a dead man who hardly sought the oppositive of a better world.

It seems a fair conclusion to make...

.... somebody with an incurable cancer diagnosis says he spend his dying breath doing xyz... seems pretty clear to me that he was well aware he was in the last run... certanily not the same as saying "I hate xyz" in the heat of the moment.

This was a calculated comment from a guy who knew he had short to live to a person who was recording his biography... not a "heat of the moment" kind of comment. Jobs had cancer long before Android was an issue for him.

Regarding passing harsh comment about somebody who just died I respect your opinion.. but honestly I hate how the most horrible people (certainly not Jobs) become almost saints once they pass away.... if there is any justice they should be regarded as what they were... in his case, a hateful, greedy control freak... with a talent for business and marketing....

I do recognize however I am very bitter at the media attention to Jobs and the lack of media attention to Ritchie so I am certainly biased in my opinions